Ever wonder what's happening in your own backyard?

Then you must turn to the NYPost. That's who has the potentially big news about Fort Worth's Pier 1: "Board members have held recent discussions about finding a successor to Marvin Girouard, 65, the longtime chairman and chief executive." Is it a pre-buyout move? A buyout-blocking move? The possibilities are endless and interesting because Pier 1 has always seemed like one of those old-school, hometown, home-grown successes where people can actually expect to retire instead of being let go. An outsider probably would change that. And of course, there's still creative up for grabs!

Then again, maybe there are just too many stories for the Dallas Morning News to cover. Things being the way they are, it's going to be an eventful time for many local CEOs. Anyone in account service know Betsy Burton? Start dialing now.

I can offer you no additional comment

Only this: "With Oscar buzz in Tinseltown nearing a crescendo, owners of the Puppies and Babies pet boutique say devising their Valentine's Day-themed window display was a 'no-brainer.' "Brokeback Mountain" is one of the great love stories of all time, so of course "Barkback Mountain" just came out,' says Hannah Brand, who...crafted a cheeky homage to the Heath Ledger-Jake Gyllenhaal film about two cowboys' epic romance. The window's canine mannequins — one in a hunter's parka, the other in a fisherman's sweater — huddle around a faux campfire, accompanied by squeaky squirrel toys, migrating geese and two clearly unused fishing rods."

Dieting: it's not just for girls and gays!

Part of me thinks it's brilliant that NutriSystem is targeting men and seniors with new weight loss ads. Part of me wonders what took 'em so long.

Go ahead. Hate the playa.

So. Yeah. I've been watching Dancing With the Stars. What can I say? I'm a middle-aged woman and that is, apparently, what we do when we're not scrapbooking. But after only a few episodes it's clear that there is no one so inexplicably cocky as male professional ballroom dancers, who rival perhaps only Fabio in terms of creepy, unrelenting vanity. That's why I can read GQ's list of the 10 most hated athletes and laugh. Compared to, say, Louis van Amstel, T.O.'s a sweetheart.

They grow up so fast

It's been a bad week for the video game industry. First: sued. Then: parents are playing? And now, a large video game trade show attempts to clean up its image by banning boobies.

Fear of restrictive legislation will do that.

Call it "faux-ga"

Now that we know the proper outfit for yoga -- thank God! -- I have a question. Is it -- and I ask this question merely for a friend -- is it OK to still wear yoga clothes even if you hate yoga? Because those shoes are really cute. According to my friend.

Quote of the day -- extended play version

A cable news anchor, in TV Guide: "How do you reach out to the larger audience, you mean? If you spend your time doing news for people who don't like news, you're on a fool's errand. What you try to do is the most interesting and intelligent and sophisticated broadcast you can do about the subject at hand and believe that's the way to attract a big news audience. Everybody else will have to take care of themselves. My feeling about this is if it becomes 'Well, nobody cares about this, so let's bring on Matt Damon or Jessica Simpson to analyze this' — once you start that, you're on the road to having nobody watch. You can't get people to care about things they're not interested in."

Bartoli to the rescue!

It is destiny.

...a pteradactyl or a brooch...

Jim Beam has bought up so many new brands and is now so international and big-time, they have to change their name. Are you ready for this? It's Beam. Yeah, Beam. "'It's a name that works because it does have a lot of flexibility inherent in it,' [Chief Executive Tom Flocco] said, noting that it could also refer to a beam of light, a balance beam, a support beam or even the beam of a ship." Uh huh.

But you, dear drinker, can still call the bourbon by its birth name: "'The change is not as relevant to consumers as it is to our employees, distributors and retailers,' he said. 'We don't get any benefit from putting Beam on the back of bottle of Sauza.'"

Comedy or something like it

Well, the Wall Street Journal tried. In attempting to find a new slant on Super Bowl ad stories, they explore how brands make their final concept selection. Laughs are almost always a top priority.

And the secret to being funny, fresh and unexpected? Focus group everything.

Lists? Everybody loves a list!

Two questions: do you ever look at a list like Business 2.0's 10 Dumbest Moments in Business to see if anyone you know is on it? And second: if you realize that their Smartest Moments list includes GoDaddy.com's Super Bowl ad, do you immediately swear off Business 2.0 forever?

Media, money and my future as a productive member of society

It might at first seem tragic that Diane Mermigas wrote her article about the TV programmers convention immediately before WB and UPN announced their merger, stealing the limelight and thoughtlessly spoiling everyone's free Vegas stay. But in the long run, maybe Mermigas has the more interesting story.

Or not -- it's a tough read. Still when someone speculates that "new paid distribution models [represent] a challenge to the conventional wisdom that advertising sales are fundamental," you have to pay attention. "Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff says a popular series like ABC's 'Desperate Housewives' can generate significantly more gross revenue for ABC from a downloading model generating $1.20 per episode per user, compared with the 45 cents per episode per viewer generated by advertising sales. 'Even if 20% of the audience shifts its viewing from broadcast to iTunes (iPod) downloads and ad revenue drop as a result, ABC makes an incremental $1.8 million,' Bernoff says in a recent report."

So that's the secret to getting entertainment executives to embrace change: just make their cut bigger.

And look, there's even a nice, reach-out-and-touch-somebody's-hand conclusion: "the developing media landscape is not so much about us vs. them -- content vs. distribution, or so-called old vs. new media -- as it is about all of the players bringing something to the table and needing each other to thrive. Traditional media companies have an indisputable expertise in content production and solid touch-points with consumers and advertisers, just as new-media players have the high-tech flexibility and savvy to respond to emerging competitive challenges and opportunities."

And I mean this sincerely

If I seem a little down, a little unmotivated this week, there's good reason. Miss Texas did not win the Miss America title. It instead went to Miss Oklahoma. Yes, Oklahoma. Believe me when I tell you: this state feels the humiliation to its very core! Maybe Texans should have sensed the impending doom when our candidate revealed that her platform would be "Putting an End to Verbal Abuse."

Then again, maybe she's just tired of all our sarcasm.

Special bonus: strippers!

Once we rid the world of drug advertising, everything will be perfect. You won't ask for prescriptions you don't need. Drug costs will come down. And your doctor can go on getting paid the kickbacks he so richly deserves: "companies employ a variety of financial ruses to pay doctors who use their devices, a practice that medical and legal experts say is unethical and possibly illegal. But despite industry efforts to clean up such practices, the documents and accusations made by former Medtronic employees suggest that the problem persists and may have gotten worse."

Payments range as high as $700,000 and can include other rewards: "When the doctors visited Memphis, she said, Medtronic employees would take them to a local strip club, PlatinumPlus, disguising the expenses as an evening at the ballet."

But don't you worry about it. Senator Bill Frist always says that doctors know best. And we should trust him. Because he's a doctor.

Also, she doesn't want to make anything that's been sold or processed

Rachael Ray, upon whom Oprah has smiled, describes her own talk show: "'I'm not interested in chit-chatting with experts or talking about anything serious, and I don't want any crying because that's not me.'"

Tree huggers vs wine-lovers: cage match!

In simple terms of happy confluence, there is no bigger lottery winner than American winemakers: between the health studies and the movie, they must have wondered if they'd ever have to pay for real advertising again. But there had to be a buzzkill. Or at least a buzz saw: "developers are buying up land in remote, ecologically fragile areas such as northwest Sonoma County...[and] are eager to turn their forests into vineyards because wine grapes, especially for high-end pinot noir, are worth more than timber."

Who wants to be known as the winemaker who cut down the redwoods? The label design alone would be tricky. And you know you look bad when the Sierra Club can issue an opposing statement that is the very model of reason and moderation: "'We're not saying you shouldn't drink wine. We're saying there are more appropriate lands to grow wine grapes on.'"

That's right. It's come to this: we're all environmentalists now.

20,000 people I'd like to become close, personal friends with

Buyers in the Ferrari customer database don't mind the waiting list. After all, they're purchasing more than a car: "selling cars in volume isn't Ferrari's business. Ferrari's business is creating and sustaining mystique around products that many aspire to but very few can possess. 'It's a life experience,' says Marco Mattiacci, vice president of marketing for Ferrari North America. 'We sell lifestyles.'"

Besides I learned what "tooty" means

I was about 10 minutes into Dancing With the Stars: the Results Show when I started to wonder if I watch too much TV. I pondered that a bit, making a mental list of shows I might go without, things I might get done if I could just reclaim those hours. And then I realized it was almost time for Battlestar Galactica.

But now? I know I'm at the leading edge of a societal phenomenon: "Gathering in groups to watch favorite TV shows is the 'book club' of the new millennium." So says the Christian Science Monitor. So say we all.

"Those who study TV and pop culture say these gatherings...come out of two things: the desire for more shared experiences and the types of programs being produced today." Shared experiences? That sounds familiar. So maybe TV is the new movie house: "Anna McCarthy, author of 'Ambient Television: Visual Culture and Public Space' thinks in part these gatherings may happen because....TV may provide something more personal. 'The TV narrative is pitched more toward social groups, movies more toward demographics,' she says."

And I'd extend all this to include the online watching party, which itself has given rise to the two most exquisite literary forms known to man: live-blogging and the online recap. Really, Auntie Mame's Project Runway commentary was a revelation. It exponentially increased my enjoyment of the actual show, which is already pretty intense. And Althouse Idol blogging is a same-night must read. Again, like the movies, you don't have to be present to win. You enjoy it on your own time. Television Without Pity, a weary nation thanks you.

So after thinking it over a little more, I'm not backing off. All TV, all the time. It's what all the other kids are doing.

Hooking up

Starbucks and Yahoo, match.com and perfectly-timed-relationship-book author Dr. Phil -- they all make such cute couples. Or such cute copiers. But if Dr. Warren really does have "over six and one-half million men and women registered on the eHarmony site, and...ten to fifteen thousand new registrants every day," I suppose there's enough optimism to go around.

Hiding from the law is easier without 27 million people watching

It wouldn't be an Idol season without a contestant in jail. This year, it might be a twofer thanks to the Brittenum twins. Does Fox know how to entertain us or what?