Ridiculous comparison blocks entry to article I want to read.

I love "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and as I eagerly await the premiere of the new season, I jump at the chance to read an article in the NYT about the terrific comedian who plays Larry's agent. But the article starts this way:

Just as there has never been another lead character on television quite like Larry David - it would be hard to imagine Ralph Kramden or Ray Barone picking up a prostitute to qualify for the carpool lane to Dodger Stadium - there has never been a sidekick quite like Jeff Greene, the fictional Mr. David's fictional manager.

All right. I have no interest in Ray Barone (and, in fact, have to guess at who he is -- he's the one "everyone" supposedly loves, I presume). But what the hell are you saying about Ralph Kramden?

Quite aside from whether Ralph was the kind of guy who would enlist a prostitute in one of his ridiculous little schemes (maybe he was) and whether such a plot could have run on TV in the years 1956 and 1957 when "The Honeymooners" was made: Dodger Stadium did not open until 1962 (and the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn in '56-'57), there was no such thing as a carpool lane back then, and Ralph Kramden did not have a car, he didn't even have a sofa.

As to "there has never been a sidekick quite like Jeff Greene": well, I love the character Jeff Greene, but if you want to bring up the question of great sidekicks and you've already mentioned Ralph Kramden, respect must be paid.

For a "Honeymooner" era traffic-beating scheme:

Ralph: It's rush hour. We'll never be able to get across town in this traffic.

Ed: Trust me. We'll go by sewer.

Now, let me go read that article.

So you want to major in video games?

You certainly can. Your parents might think it's self-indulgent compared to traditional majors, so you might have to explain economic realities to them. It's a $10 billion-a-year industry, and it needs people trained in the complex technology and design it takes to make a game.

IN THE COMMENTS: Warnings that employees do poorly in the video game industry.

The Apprentice, the Donald.

"I'm going to divide the teams into men versus women. The reason I like doing it this way is sometimes it's hard telling you apart. This way it's a lot easier." [So said Donald Trump setting up the competition in the first episode of Season 4.]

Huh? What the hell??

Chris: "I think it's the best way."

Me, blogging: "Let me quote you. Why do you think it's the best way?"

Chris: "You said it's the best way!"

Oh, yeah. Right. It is the most distinctive difference between people, and the interaction among women and among men is more nuanced and fascinating than the way men relate to women and women to men, which is more stereotypical.

Hey, wait. The first test, after they are divided into a male team and a female team, is a running test. Totally unfair! Of course, the men win. It's a shoe thing! Now, I'm pissed.

Now the show's over, and I must say, it was excellent -- much better than Martha Stewart's version last night. Chris and I agreed that the whole style of the production -- the suspenseful editing, the music, the attitude -- were much more absorbing and exciting. The boardroom scene was far superior. We laughed a lot at how Melissa behaved, richly deserving the ouster she got. All the other women hated her, and she proclaimed that women do all hate her, because of her beauty (though she was no more beautiful than the other women), and that, in fact, she could not work with women. Ha!

Well, we had a great time watching this show, and it made Martha's show seemed crabbed and small by comparison. Sorry, Martha! And I like Martha more than Donald. But it's just so fun not liking Trump. We often laugh just to see him walking onto the set, making his idiotically stern little faces.

UPDATE: By the way, I instantly loved Alla, the Russian immigrant. And when she was the first to speak up about Melissa, just as everyone was focusing on the project manager, and she laid it right out why Melissa should be the target, my bond became permanent. I want Alla to win.

Audible Althouse.

Episode 5, the new podcast, is suddenly available and utterly new!

"I know this is a metaphor, but it is the only way I feel I can protest the unjust occupations."

Said a performance artist, Hala Faisal, who took off her clothes in public, displaying the words "Stop the War." Where's the metaphor? Supposedly, taking off your clothes ≈ disarmament.

I like the way the lawyer got the charge of public nudity dismissed on the technicality that the summons failed to state which body part she exposed, but that he had also loftier arguments:

Women in New York are entitled to bare their breasts under "equal protection" rules since men are allowed to bare theirs, ... and anyone may bare all if they do so during a "play, performance, exhibition or show."

Inadvisably brusque answer to a question actually given by me today.

"Duh."

Really, I'm sorry. That was so inappropriate. Yet apt.

Sentence of the Day.

The award goes to David Montgomery of the Washington Post for this juicy mass of info in the form of a sentence:

Plump couches, radical books, free WiFi, $5 microbrews, killer sound system, a menu that runs from catfish and collard greens to peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches: a cool, comfortable, slightly bourgy haven for a hot, bothered, slightly bourgy peace movement.