I ordered a new TV last night from Amazon. That may seem like no big deal, but I've been extraordinarily reluctant to buy one of the things. My current set is a 13-incher that I bought at about this time of year in 1992. Last summer, it developed a black blob in the upper right corner. The blob covered part of the Fox Box score summary in baseball games, but it wasn't overly irritating. Since then, the blob has grown. It's now a black gash that conceals the top third of the screen. A full-face shot -- like an anchor reading the news -- displays only nose and lips on this TV. That makes Bill O'Reilly into nothing but the self-satisfied smirk if I happen to stop there accidentally while scanning. A full body shot in a show displays headless creatures. A partial-body shot becomes nothing but a crotch, making any show look like an MTV video. Baseball has become unwatchable this summer (which is the thing that finally pushed me over the edge to a new set). Not only is the score box gone, but one can see only the stance and nothing of the batter's swing.

So it's time, I guess, to let those images have the space they desire. Let them show themselves completely.

That new view begins sometime in the next week.