Who needs to go out on Friday nights? Or watch stupid comedies on ABC?

Let us take this moment away from baby talk for a moment to drool slightly over PBS's recent Friday night lineup which, because I am now an old lefty academic, I find a little... well, hot.

On the left, we have David Brancaccio. When he was the voice of NPR's Marketplace, I thought he was very intelligent and had a great radio voice. I have been disappointed with seeing what some of my favorite radio personalities actually look like. (Then again, I'm such a fan of Daniel Schorr that I would wear his old mug on a t-shirt any old time. Eric Martinsen, I know you would, too.) Nonetheless, Mr. Brancaccio left radio to work PBS' Now, the embattled current emblem of Everything Wrong with Public Television According to the Republican Party. (For the record, I also think Bill Moyers is tres cool and a fairly courageous personality in this day and age. Yeah, boy howdy, I'm a liberal, ain't I?) In any case, it turns out that Mr. Brancaccio does not have a face for radio. He's so earnest-looking, yet wise. Like an assistant professor who is trying very hard to get you to understand a concept. (The fact that I not only know assistant professors but am one is entirely irrelevant to this analogy.) I mean, isn't he dreamy? Don't you just want to go into his office hours and have him explain public policy to you?

Or maybe you'd prefer to be locked up. In which case, we have Sharon Small on the right. Not exactly the starlet but hey, I'll take her over Lindsey Lohan any day. She has had a couple of good roles in films, most prominently in Dear Frankie, but I think she's best known here for playing Barbara Havers on the PBS Mystery! series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. Characterized as smart and scrappy (if lower-class and therefore, since this is a British series, doomed), Havers is the best personality on the show. I have been informed by my Dean (through Angela) that in the books, she is supposed to be highly unattractive; Sharon Small is far from that. Not that she'll make magazine covers, perhaps, but wouldn't you also want to talk over a good pint about a case with her?

Yes, when I become the right demographic for PBS, you know there's too much So You Think You Can Dance? on network television. (Then again -- mmmm, David Brancaccio... mmmm, Sharon Small.... mmmm, Daniel Schorr... wait, no, that takes it too far.)