The new TV season is off and running, and this year I was actually excited about the possibilities. There are fewer reality shows and more dramas, and not just crime show dramas (which I used to be excited about until they created fifty gazillion of them). The big winner on the week, was, no surprise, CSI with 29 million viewers, Desperate Housewives was second with an audience of 28.4 million. Lost came in third at 23.5 million. And everyone's favorite, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, came in, uh, number 66 with 7.1 million viewers.

7.1 million. The Bigger Loser suffocated her at 7.9 million. Rock Star: INXS drummed her with 7.8 million viewers. Little Joey, still searching for his place in the television universe defriended her with 7.8 million viewers. Heck, even Martha Behind Bars, the made for television movie, locked her up with 7.5 million viewers.

It's a day like this when I know there is a God. He does not make potpourri, he does not arrange flowers, nor does he tell the world how to fold a t-shirt. And mostly, he does not watch The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. (For all you Martha fans, all 7.1 million of you, we'll just agree to disagree.)

And, there was an op-ed piece in the New York Times (apologies if you can't get it, the whole "TimesSelect" thing is really screwy), from Tim O'Reilly, publisher of O'Reilly books (books for the computer geekazoid types). For those of you who don't know, Google has chosen to scan and index millions of books from the five largest library collections in the world, so that people can search and access them from the Internet. The Author's Guide has filed suit saying this is a clear violation of the copyright law. Mr. O'Reilly defends the Google position, but what is alarming is this little quote:

AUTHORS struggle, mostly in vain, against their fated obscurity. According to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks sales from major booksellers, only 2 percent of the 1.2 million unique titles sold in 2004 had sales of more than 5,000 copies.

That means, there are only 24,000 titles that sold more than 5,000 copies. Now, this is a little scary for me because it illustrates with Danielle Steele clarity the situation in the bookstores with millions of books shelved, and only a few that are actually selling in any quantity that will feed and clothe an author. Appalling! Distressing! Write your Congressman!

However, if we put away the violins, I must celebrate a little "All about Me" moment, because those statistics means I'm in the club. I sell more than 5,000 copies. A good bit more, if I can toot my horn. Yeah, me and Nora, JK, Stephen King, we hang. We're buds. Okay, not so much, but it still makes me feel rather special. It makes me feel wanted and loved and yes, "exclusive." Okay, now must shrink my head down to its normally pea-brain sized….

I had a couple more things to write about, but I'll save them for a rainy day, and it's currently not rainy, just crisp and cool. October is just around the corner, the Yanks and Red Sox are about to slug it out for the chance to extend their season, and the house remodeling project is coming to a close!! Woohoo!!