Stuck in the sickbed for my weekend of recovery, here's what I noticed on the television.

The state controller, Steve Westly, wants to overhaul the Internet tax system in California. California has an Internet tax system, you ask? Sure, it does. When you order something online, you'll probably notice that you don't pay any sales taxes on your purchase. Ah, but at the end of the year, you're supposed to report all your online purchases in your state income tax return and pay the appropriate amount, something even the state admits hardly anyone does. I bet you don't. I know I don't. The rush to do this was put on by a 37-state pact with various online companies, California excluded, to streamline the tax process. With a $35 billion deficit, every little bit helps.

CBS is showing golf from Pebble Beach. Great tournament with Davis Love III winning. Tiger Woods is still injured but he promises to play next week in Torrey Pines near San Diego. The thing that caught my ear was the CBS music. It sounded too American Gladiators to me, trumpets and everything.

The Travel Channel showed some weird stuff called The Battle of the Buffets. 6 people get to eat until somebody throws up. It was a pretty gross experience with one guy eating 12 plates of stuffed tomatoes and some other international stuff and another eating 10 plates of eggs benedict and waffles, all under a time limit of 15 minutes. This program was followed by the top ten eating contests in the country including the hot dog eating contest at Coney Island and the Wing Bowl in Philadelphia, where a guy ate 150 chicken wings to the bone in 30 minutes. Poor chickens.

Wait. Is it a bad thing if one of those banner ads that writes you've won if this is flashing, isn't flashing?

Got through watching the All-Star festivities in basketball. In one shot, they showed us the winner of the ultimate fan contest. From the looks of it, all they got was a couch to sit on, really high from the floor. If I was the ultimate fan, I would've wanted to sit on the floor.

There's a Michelob commercial on the air which has a lady waiting for her bag at baggage claim. A guy sees the bag, picks it up, and decides to dump it in the garbage so he can meet her and yes, have a Michelob with her. Is this guy dumb or what? My bet is the relationship won't last long.

TBS has been showing The Patriot all week, an above average war flick starring Mel Gibson. I always wonder about the neatly formed lines the regiment makes before they fire and shoot. I mean, the other side fires and they just stand around takin the hits. They don't run around, duck, get behind a guy, anything? I find it amazing so few died this way.

Poor James Coburn. He's selling gambling videos he made a few years ago, which is wrong. Why? He died in November! If his estate is paying off debts or if some guy is trying to make an extra buck, he should really try another way.

Finally, The Cutting Edge. Whew, probably the only uplifting figure skating film there is. Things happen in that movie that are so far-fetched that it's even more comedic than they probably realized. Like that last move they do, that twist. It never worked in their five weeks of practice. It looks as though nobody could do it. Yet, on the biggest stage in the world, they pull it off at the last minute. Geez, like we didn't see that coming.