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A SHORT NOTE TO SEE IF ANY ONE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A

This being the first installment of the TV World blog, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about a little bit of television that has crept onto the world wide web. NBC's The Office is undoubtedly one of the most popular shows on tv right now, and with good reason. It has bar-none one of the strongest writing teams in the business and a uniquely talented cast, not to mention a slew of guest directors that reads like a who's who of small-screen excellence. This has all led to the US adaptation running three seasons longer than the UK original by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. From the looks of things, America's Office has at least one more season left in it, possibly more if the various plot threads don't wear too thin. It's understandable, then, that NBC has dumped a lot of extra resource into creating web content for the series. In general, major television networks have been slow to adopt the Internet. Doing so would require what some insufferable management type might call a "major paradigm shift". That being said, pop over to The Office website and you'll find that it's the busiest network-created tv show page online today. It has games, mock-blogs that are hilarious in their own right, and loads of video content. In addition to full episodes, there's a pretty big chunk of web-exclusive content, the best of which are the webisodes. The road to these free-floating B-plots was something of a rocky one. In order to appease Office addicts, NBC slapped together a bunch of cheap content for the lean Summer months. Most of these involved Angela Kinsey doing ploddingly scripted scenes, like a boring bit involving a contrived discussion with the writers, or a disconcertingly unfunny moment with a drunk Oscar Nunez. Thankfully, the webisodes have been uniformly high-quality. They have a conservationist attitude to them. It's likely that these are just loose plots destined for the cutting room floor, only to be rescued for webcasting. The first and longest webisode is an epic 10-part mystery involving some missing money in the company books. All of the webisodes so far have centered on the accounting team, all of whom rarely get as much screen time as the stars at the front of office. It's nice to get into the barely-functional dynamics of these fundamentally mismatched people. Oscar, Angela and Kevin couldn't be more different but they're stuck together, so they make with the funny despite having the most boring jobs at Dunder-Mifflin. The second webisode veers back into the absurd territory we're used to seeing with Michael and Dwight, only this time it involves Kevin attempting to relieve his gambling debts with a convoluted and predictably stupid plan to sell ice cream. While the first webisode was too much of a slow burn to contain some really great moments, "Kevin's Loan" has at least two. First is Oscar's exasperated impression of Kevin, which is not only funny but is also an economical way to give us a peek into what life back in the accounting pit must be like, minus the drudgery of having to live it. The second excellent moment of the webisode comes from Darryl and his slick-ification of Kevin's loan pitch. Wielding what looks like a shoe polish tin repurposed as a sample container, he uses his most sultry voice to invite others to "taste the ice cream". It's always good to see the more sane characters on the show get caught up in the ridiculousness of the others. The third and most recent webisode is decidedly low-key. After Oscar has the titular "Outburst" on his telephone, more than half the office becomes obsessed with finding out who was on the other line. We get some juicy bits from Creed, who I don't think has ever fallen flat over the course of the entire show, and even docile Toby can't help but let his more oily side out into the open. The resolution is, as we should expect, fairly anticlimactic, but getting there is consisently funny. As is often the case, Kelly contributes the most laughs to this quickie intrigue. We can only hope that Mindy Kaling has a long and very visible career once The Office waves its final goodbye to American audiences. There will certainly be more webisodes on the way, or at least we fans can hope. They're like satisfying snacks in between full episodes. They're light, they're simple, they're fun.

Not too long ago I was back at a Washington brew pub for a second visit. We'd tried two of the local brews the last time, and, by rights, I knew I really should try a couple more of the several current offerings. But I'd really really liked one of the two I'd already tried . . .

The solution? I ordered the "taster" sample; a small 5 oz. glass of each of the six of the brewery's own brews on tap.

The tasters were accompanied by a special placemat, with a circle for each 5 oz. glass of beer, and a short description of the beer. The glasses of beer were carefully arranged in order from lightest to darkest. That's 30 ozs. of beer, a bit more than I want to drink in a sitting, and just right to share with a friend, especially at "Happy Hour," with a bite to eat on the side, and plenty of water to rinse palates between samples. The taster is enough to thoroughly taste the beer, and evaluate color and after flavors, and even to compare them with each other, and then compare your impressions with your friends— since that's even more fun than drinking the beer.

I notice that most brew pubs offer the chance to "taste" their offerings in small 3 to 5 ounce servings, and it really is both educational and a lot of fun. You could easily arrange for a small group of friends to sample a few beers over the course of an hour or so, with breaks for food and water. Alternatively, you could do your own "beer tasting." Pick several sorts of beer to taste, perhaps those of a single brewery, or of a single type or brewing style, or from a particular region, or perhaps a selection chosen for variety and range. Invite the guests, and provide each with a glass of water in addition to their beer tasting glass. Then compare notes. You might find these suggestions useful, on setting up your own tasting, and these descriptions as a few of the ways to describe the beer.

As much fun as sampling tasters—or holding your own beer tasting is, and it really is fun—there are those for whom beer tasting is work. So much work, in fact, that not only does it require professional training in order to be a beer taster, you need a professional to select the prospective beer tasters. But there are job hazards for the professional beer taster, as well as the more obvious pleasures:

A judge in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has ruled that a local brewing company must pay damages to one of its former beer tasters, after the taster alleged that his job—drinking alcohol—caused him to develop alcoholism.

In the lawsuit, the employee alleged that as part of his beer-tasting job, he was required to taste beer. Specifically, he said he typically drank between 16 and 25 small glasses of beer during each eight-hour shift, which works out to a little over three pints a day, at least five days a week, for more than a decade. (He also said he received a bottle of beer after each shift, so let's just call it four pints a day.)

Thanks, but I think I'd rather be an amateur.

Hello, all. Welcome to Pop Music Club. My name is Michael Sarko and you'll be seeing me here twice a week. I'll be commenting on all things pop; old and new, good and bad, Top 40 and barely-released curiosities. But first, let's get a definition out of the way. What Is Pop? I'm using the broad definition here of popular music as an overarching style. If it was made in the last century, doesn't require a full orchestra, marching band, or choir of monks, and can be even marginally identified as music, I'm calling it pop. As of this post, Britney Spears has a new album on the shelves, but then again, so do David Byrne and Brain Eno. In this blog, those two albums get equal billing. Welcome, everyone. Enjoy.