"When the cat and mouse agree, the grocer is ruined." Persian proverb

"Television is a medium because anything well done is rare." Ernie Kovacs

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt

The great radio star Fred Allen often gets credit for the Ernie Kovacs quotation above. Heard the attribution to each over the years. One of my favorite Allen lines is "Imitation is the sincerest form of television."

Obvious. Topical. Local.

The thesis first became known to me as one of the "Rules of Three." This one credited to the genius Robert Todd Storz, the wunderkind regarded as the first architect of Top 40 radio. Obvious, topical, local. The Storz Rule of Three. Good content is based in one or more of those three characteristics. On the day job, working with broadcast talent, we spend a considerable amount of time on storytelling issues. Great storytelling begins with good judgment, superior story selection - the right stories told in an engaging, arresting, memorable fashion.

The ultimate destination of the internet is local. Increasingly, our finding is the Storz Rule of Three serves as an excellent standard for online content. It works on and off line to wonderful effect. Obvious. Topical. Local.

Which reminds me of the legendary Bill Stewart and the counsel to talent during his run with the great Gordon McLendon organization. "Be funny, Be informative, or Be quiet."

Why Feedburner is trouble: Dave Winer offers a caution...

"People at Microsoft used to say that Windows isn't ready to ship until Lotus doesn't run. That's not a typo. You'd think it would be the other way around, that a popular operating system would never hold the users of a popular spreadsheet hostage. But it could happen when they have their own spreadsheet and want you to switch. Or if they want everyone to put ads in their feeds. Who would miss a few blogs here and there, don't we all use Blogger anyway (that's one area where they haven't taken over, btw, thankfully)." Dave's entire post here. Scobleizer with comments here. Readers of this humble blog know, I heart Google and trust they will do the right thing.

Googling the FCC: Speaking of Google, Tom Evslin lends his pov to Google's 700Mhz auction offer...

"Two problems with the Google offer: at&t and Verizon hate it and it probably would result in the 700MHz auction bringing in somewhat less money (immediately) for the treasury than an alternative which would encourage the telcos to bid." Read Tom's post with back story here. Agree with Tom on this one. Bravo Tom, good writing!

What future for PBS? Michael Rosenblum writes...

"So the question become instead, what is the best role for PBS in a country where all the rest of TV is commercial and we pretty much refuse to fund it. PBS must contend itself with beggaring really, to corporations and communities. This is distasteful and a disgrace to our country, but that is the way it is at the moment. With their limited resources, and with the democratization of video exploding - and no major network really paying all that much attention, I think that the notion of publisher of quality (from ‘us out here with the cameras’) is a unique niche that PBS could quickly occupy. No one else is doing it."

Bravo Michael! Read his post with comments here.

Bonus: The Caffeinated Librarian. Lonesome Music. My thanks to the Blogger gang for the tips.

Congrats & cheers: Madison's own uber-cool Ben Sidran on his Talking Jazz box set. Highly recommended. More info here. Steve Coll named prexy of the New America Foundation. Marc Andreessen on the sale of his company, Opsware, to HP for $1.6 Bil. Vinny Brown and his WBLS crew posting #2 25-54 in the new book ahead of #3 WLTW! Jeff Siegel named VP, Home Entertainment (Americas) for FremantleMedia. Matthew Weiner on the debut of his very cool new original series Mad Men (AMC).