A programming note: As the writer's strike is keeping your favorite talk shows off the air till who knows when, there's always ... oh ... I dunno ... Charlie Rose? Might as well, if you're up at midnight tonight, if only because U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson's one of Rose's guests tonight. (The other one's some former British ambassador to the United Nations -- getting sleepy already.) Dunno what Hutchinson's scheduled to talk about -- toll roads, maybe? Doubtful.

Wonder if Kay Bailey and Charlie knew each other back when he was at KXAS-Channel 5 in the late 1970s and early '80s? Ah, I don't think that's what's on the chitchat agenda for tonight. I wonder if he'll interrupt her a lot. --Robert Wilonsky

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