We're immersed in budget planning and reviews, which sap up much of my time each late summer -- and this year will probably mean postponing next week's vacation (just as it already has cost planned time off for my controller and one of my advertising directors). That's the way it is, as Walter Cronkite used to say. But for the purposes of this blog, I've come up for air just long enough to consider several more odds and ends.

For example:

*The New York Post, which often throws away any attempt at objectivity, has outdone itself in coverage of the "Troopergate" situation in Albany. If the Post wants to vilify the governor on its editorial page and opinion columns, by all means, go for it. But it ought to be embarrassed with its slanted "news" coverage. It ought to be embarrassed, but it isn't.

*The Wreckers are playing the Dutchess County Fair tonight. In case you were uncertain, they're musicians, not a demolition derby.

*I believe I'm already on record regarding my distaste for a lot of what appears on local public access television. Beyond that, there's no disputing that many of the local stations have experienced their fair share of content- and operations-related firestorms. But you'll be hard-pressed to find a more shocking public access TV story than the one by Freeman staffer Patricia Doxsey on today's front page describing the arrest of a businessman and school board member for allegedly wiping out the bank account of the Northern Dutchess TV station for which he was in charge. We're talking $25,000. "We were unhappy with the way (the station) was operating, but I think we thought we dealing with imcompetence, not this," said Rhinebeck Supervisor Steve Block.

*I respectfully suggest to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim should be permanently eliminated from the New York Yankees schedule.