Take five

1. I'm not sure how Southwest Airlines saves money by not assigning seats on its airplanes, but it's absolutely fascinating to go on a flight with it and see how the seats fill up. In other words, people will cram into the first few rows, filling every seat, before the rows in the back have more than a few people in them. Are they that claustrophoic that getting off the plane two minutes quicker is more important than being able to stretch out over the course of a three hour flight?

2. I'm getting sick of political candidates who have supporters sitting behind them during speeches. What happens? I tend to look at the people behind the speaker, rather than actually listening to what's said. This can not be a good thing.

3. Throwing out the Lakers-Celtics history aside, this has a chance to be a very interesting NBA Finals for a change. The Paul Pierce saga in Game One added a little spice, and if Boston wins Game Two the Lakers would have to win four out of five. The Celtics may have more of a chance than I originally thought if Ray Allen can have some big games; he's looked pretty old at times down the stretch.

4. Million-Dollar Password was something like third in the television ratings last week. This once again proves that a classic game show never grows old, it only needs a little break.

One of my favorite game show anecdotes (you mean you don't have any?) involved the original Password. As I recall, the password was "father." The first clue blurted out by the contestant was "mean." Paging Dr. Freud.

5. The ratings are in for the NHL Finals. As you'd expect, Pittsburgh and Detroit were at the top of the rankings by city. Buffalo was third despite missing the playoffs. But care to guess what city was 10th in the country in terms of ratings?

You are wrong. It was Las Vegas.