Hearing this guy tear through the football highlight clips is an unalloyed pleasure, not just for his enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge of the game, but also for the pop-culture detours.

Where else in the middle of recapping a Broncos-Chargers game could you hear shout-outs to both Guy Lafleur and the Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today"?

Berman is the pluperfect match of a voice and a sport, like Keith Jackson and college football, or Marv Albert and basketball or Joe Garagiola and baseball.

Growing up, I used to watch ABC's bowling coverage on Saturday afternoons just to hear the late Chris Schenkel describe the action. And I hated bowling.

Household object. The season opener of House was a rare showcase for Robert Sean Leonard. Without his compassionate Wilson, House's corrosive nature would be too rankling. Leonard's performance reminds me of Sam Waterston on I'll Fly Away. (God, I miss that show!)

I also loved the Jersey-centric analogy House made when he found out a bereaved Wilson was leaving Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital. "Grief is Newark," he said. "It's there, can't avoid it. The idea is to hold your nose, hope the traffic's not too bad, and get onto Manhattan as quickly as possible, not to buy property."

Isn't that special? Entertainment Tonight has obliterated the line between covering entertainment and participating in it (in a creepy, leechlike manner).

This week, Mark Steines introduced a segment on "my friend, Julia Roberts." How chummy.

Foreign affairs. I watched the Secret Policeman's Ball on BBC America this week. Twice during the comedy cavalcade at London's Albert Hall, the announcer teased viewers with the promise of "the legendary Chevy Chase."

I guess what Jerry Lewis is to France, Chevy is to Britain: a baffling object of adoration.

Leaving a sour taste. What did the City of Brotherly Love ever do to deserve FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

This is the sickest show on TV, bar none. It makes South Park look like Arthur.

In this week's season opener, Dee (Kaitlin Olson) and Charlie (Charlie Day) developed insatiable appetites for human flesh, while Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Dennis (Glenn Howerton) donned camouflage to go "man-hunting" on the streets of Philadelphia.

Are we laughing yet?

Can't escape the message. I don't know what it's like in the rest of the country, but here in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, we are being bombarded with political ads at an alarming rate.

The candidates' carpet-bombing has gotten so bad that now, when I see even a heartburn commercial, I expect to hear afterward: "I'm John McCain and I approved this message."