I read that the National Endowment for the Arts reported that the average American now spends about 24 minutes a day reading. And that includes newspapers, TV guide, recipes…everything. Worse, that same, average American watches over four hours of television each day. My first reaction to this was dismay– how awful that Americans are such illiterate couch potatoes. It quickly turned to guilt. I don’t watch *any* television. That means somewhere out there is some poor s.o.b. that I have doomed to watching EIGHT hours a day. That poor guy. I envision him struggling to fit it all in to his day while still making it to work on time, sleeping, and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life. I felt even worse when I factored in how much I read each day. I spend several hours reading. That means he not only has to endure those 8 hours of television, he doesn’t even get to read at all. Maybe he has to sit and write for like 2 hours and 36 minutes a day, just to make up for my voracious reading habits. He doesn’t even get to read the back of his cereal box in the morning, assuming he even has the time to eat one. Wherever you are buddy– I’m sorry.