TVSquad

If you didn't see it, here's a video of The Real Housewives of New York City ringing the stock market opening bell yesterday morning. They also give their opinion on the economic crisis, because they have a reality show on Bravo.

[via Gawker]

(S01E12) "Do you think we closed Pandora's box?" -- Tom to Trina, after Janet's birthday party

You knew this was going to be an episode fraught with revelations when the strains of Carly Simon singing "No Secrets" played over the opening scene. Perfect song to comment on the surprises to come, as Swingtown climbs toward the big season one climax next week.

The show is getting tantalizing terrific. It's not that I'm enamored with all the characters, but they've all become interesting to me. Even Ricky's struggle to come to terms with his best friend falling in love with the girl next door and leaving behind their buddy-buddy relationship, was surprisingly meaningful to me. The scene where Janet advised Ricky to show B.J. how important his friendship was to him was wonderful. His hugging Mom like that was so true; Janet is a tough mother, but she's the embodiment of love and support and Ricky needed his mommy in that moment.

There was about a year and a half when I was completely addicted to CNBC. It was the mid to late 90s, around 97 or 98, when I was starting to write more online and became fascinated by how technology was driving the economy and stock market to new heights. I remember having CNBC on all day along (along with CNN and MSNBC), and I loved seeing all the numbers fly by the bottom of the screen. Sure, I had no idea what any of it meant, but CNBC also had a lighter, pop culture bent to it that made it entertaining. I watched Power Lunch every afternoon, I waited for interviews with the CEOs of companies I was intererested in (like Steve Jobs from Apple - that was a big comeback story), and I even got to know the anchors and reporters (oh, Maria Bartiromo!).

Then the bubble burst and people didn't really enjoy watching CNBC anymore. And now it's really a shadow of what it used to be. But now two guys are trying to make it good again. Ex-Today producer Jonathan Wald and ex-60 Minutes producer Josh Howard have been brought on to pump new life into the business network. The duo plans more documentaries, as well as other big changes for the network.

What do you think needs to be done to CNBC to make it better? 

This was one of those situations where you hear that someone has died, and that they hosted a show that is no longer on the air, and you think, "I thought that show was still on the air?"

Louis Rukeyser hosted Wall Street Week on PBS from 1970 to 2002. He was also a writer and lecturer, and worked for years at ABC as a correspondent. He died yesterday of multiple myleloma,  a bone cancer.