Over the years I have learned as much hanging around the office coffee pot as I have learned in most formal adult and professional education courses.  The coffee pot and break room is a place where anybody in the office can mingle in a neutral location, and talk about almost anything that enters their mind, as long as the topic remains mostly appropriate to the surroundings.

Recently we've talked a lot about television.  Whether it is ripping the media circus surrounding Michael Jackson, the death of Walter Cronkite, or the last episode of "I Love Lucy" playing on the "Archive Channel," everybody has an opinion on what television is, was, and should be.

Television has changed a lot over the past few years.  Much like print news media, which has always heavily depended on advertising to both define the layouts of press - as well as subsidize and make the actual money for news papers (subscriptions have never made any money for the press), television has traditionally segmented programming around advertising.