There had been speculation that Sprint would introduce a nationwide unlimited plan. In May, it introduced one to residents of Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Tampa, Fla., and parts of Northern California and Western Nevada. Sprint's plan costs $119.99 a month, and includes unlimited Web use, e-mail and messaging, which Verizon Wireless' and AT&T's plans do not.

Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins said Sprint "fumbled at the goal line" and let Verizon Wireless get ahead of it in improving customer perception. He called it a surprising move for Verizon Wireless, which has previously used its image as a quality provider to charge higher rates.

Sprint spokeswoman Emmy Anderson said the company is looking at how well the offer is doing in the trial areas, and hasn't announced any plan to take it nationwide.

I saw a commercial on late night TV...It said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers." So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, and I didn't know what the hell they were.

Don't kill yourself. You may have heard of a recent study indicating that rats gained weight when they ate yogurt sweetened with saccharine but not when it was sweetened with glucose. The result sort of flies in the face of why you were eating sugar substitutes in the first place - to help you lose weight.

Relax. There may be less to this story than meets the eye, indicating exactly why you don't make changes based on a single study.

This study has its share of weaknesses, such as studying a very small number of rats - as few as eight in some of the groups. It also uses saccharine, instead of a sugar substitute with a taste closer to that of sugar. There are a number of other flaws as well - enough to prevent drawing real conclusions from the results.

What's more, these results contrast with other studies showing that rats do compensate for calories pretty well when there is no perceptible taste difference.

Now, one could argue that such is the problem with sugar substitutes: they lure you into a false sense of caloric security. Wrong. The burden of weight management was never supposed to be dumped on the back of a sugar substitute. It takes effort, and we need to come to grips with that.

Sugar substitutes can be one step on the pathway to a healthier weight, but if it's the only step, you won't reach your goal. Of course, sugar substitutes are not a required tool of the job, just an option. Keep to drinking plain water or seltzer and you're fine, too.

Should we all be stocking up [on forever stamps]?

Absolutely not. Since 1971, postal rates have increased more slowly than the actual inflation rate, as measured by the U.S. Consumer Price Index. So, despite the numerous rate hikes over the last 36 years, stamps have actually been getting cheaper. The 20-cent stamp from 1981, for instance, would be equivalent to 45 cents in today's dollars-which makes today's rate 10 percent cheaper than it was 26 years ago. Should this historical pattern hold, you'd be paying more for today's forever stamps than you would for any stamp in the future, no matter how high the rate goes.

In fact, this pattern must hold - as a matter of law. In December, President Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which ensures that future price increases will be kept below an inflation-based ceiling. In other words, postage hikes will never surpass inflation - and the forever stamp will never become a good investment. Incidentally, the USPS announced the introduction of the forever stamp less than two months after Bush signed the act into law.

24
Expected to return this fall or January '09.

30 Rock
Expected to shoot 5 to 10 new episodes to air in April/May.

The Office
Expected to shoot 5 to 10 new episodes to air in April/May.

(No word yet on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Entourage)

The main advance for the writers comes in the area of residual payments for material broadcast over the Internet and other digital media. As the market for network TV reruns ebbs, industry players expect Web streaming to start spitting out cash in coming years. The writers were especially sensitive about this issue because they believe they were shafted out of millions of dollars in DVD revenue as a result of home-video deals made during the 1980s.

The DGA agreed to a flat fee for material used on the Web, but the writers, in the third year of their contract, will get something far better: a percentage of the distributor's gross receipts. Why does this matter? First, it's proportional. On the off chance that Web streaming does explode into a commercial leviathan, writers will reap the benefits, as opposed to collecting a fee that could wind up looking like a consolation prize. And more important, writers will be paid off the gross that's actually connected to a retailer's price -- say, the $1.99 iTunes charges for a TV episode -- as opposed to the less-impressive "producer's gross," which entails complicated formulas that require a platoon of accountants to unpack.

Now, all of this does not mean that the tentative agreement is nirvana for Hollywood's scribe tribe. Some guild dissenters are already attacking a provision that says the studios don't have to pay any residual on streamed content for up to 24 days after its initial airing. This term exists because the studios don't want to have to fork over cash every time a DVR user queues up a show a week or two after its original airdate. But critics say it gives the studio bosses a significant loophole to exploit.

Nor does the deal extend to jurisdiction over reality and animation writers, which Patric Verrone, president of the guild's West Coast branch, had promised members would be in the next contract. Many in the guild say officials merely used the issue as a stalking horse for the much more vital area of new-media residuals.

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