Mike: Logan, did you see this op-ed in The Los Angeles Times written by John McCain? Essentially, he wants cable TV to be unbundled—”an a la carte approach to programming rather than the take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum we have today.” This is a topic that’s actually been talked about for a few years now. Putting aside for a minute whether or not that kind legislation could actually pass, would you like to be able to, say, build your own cable TV and pick your own channels?

Logan: I saw some tweets about it. And now I just read it. He makes some points, obviously. I don’t subscribe to cable right now because subscribing to cable would involve monthly bills and set up fees and also buying a TV, ha. And that’s okay for my lifestyle. I mostly watch TV on my phone, at this juncture in life. One day it will be nice to have a couch again, a TV. For now that’s a luxury I enjoy at my parents’ house, mostly. My friend Rebecca has a nice TV. We mostly watch Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Hulu and like, Beyonce videos. So me, now, no, the way I buy cable wouldn’t change if The Way We Buy Cable changed, because: I still wouldn’t buy cable. But yeah, I mean sure, of course it’d be better to pick your channels and only pay for your channels.

That’s basically how it works now, with upgrading to premium packages, except you have to pay for all the sports channels just because you want one sports channel, or all the movie channels if you just want TCM. Everything is going to get worked out like it should be, eventually, mostly, is my opinion on this and most matters.

Mike: The Surowiecki article in The New Yorker talks a little bit about how unbundling cable TV wouldn’t necessarily drive down prices for consumers. But yeah, I’m basically the same way. I get enough entertainment through streaming sites right now and don’t own a TV. But every now and then I’ll stay in a hotel or visit my folks at their place and see all the channels and remember. ESPN! National Geographic! The Food Network! There is always something on when you’re bored and that’s kind of nice. Okay, so if you could pick five cable channels to have what channels would they be? I guess mine would be those three I just mentioned, and HBO and maybe History.

Logan: Um hm. Well, the only time I ever wish I had LIVE TELEVISION is during national events like the State of the Union or the Academy Awards. What else. Various series finales and premieres. During BREAKING NEWS I sometimes bemoan not having the 24/7 news cycle coming at me from my living room, but I also recognize that it’s mostly a good thing to be unplugged from that—totally useless, really. So hmm. HGTV, because it reminds me of home. TCM and AMC, for the same reasons—my dad always has an old movie on, I love them. Al Jazeera when it launches for news I guess. And HBO, duh.

Mike: You can stream the State of the Union and presidential debates and such. I know because that’s what I did during this last election. It’s true about live television though—it would have been so nice to have during the Olympics, but it was also kind of fun watching it with friends or with strangers at a bar. But I guess the way we watch things and how we pay for it have been evolving and will continue to evolve. Speaking of: Will you be watching Arrested Development on Netflix this holiday weekend?

Logan: Oh gosh. I hadn’t thought about it actually. I really want to watch it with other people, so I guess I should probably make some plans to do that. When I first moved to Portland, they were replaying the first season in this cool old movie theater, and my brother and I went every week, and it was so, so fun to laugh along with a huge theater of people. It turned me off from watching comedies by myself, I think. Or maybe it was mostly that I loved watching it with my brother—he has the best laugh. You?

Mike: I want to, but will probably put it off. I sort of want to rewatch the other seasons first, because it’s been a few years. And, actually, everyone has been telling me the must watch show that I should be streaming on Netflix is Scandal, which I know you’ve been all over.

Logan: YES SCANDAL YES. Mike go home and watch it all right now. You won’t be able to stop. You won’t want to. It’s just that good. Then find some money themes and we can talk about it NEXT WEEK ON THE BILLFOLD.

Mike: Okay, one final thing before we take off for the weekend. Remember when we talked about which characters we’d be on a few TV shows, and Nashville was one of the shows we talked about? I am no longer Gunnar. He’s awful. And you are no longer Juliette’s junkie mom. She’s … well. Pick a new character. Maybe I am the vet.

Logan: That vet is pretty great. Pretty great vet. Good with animals. Just like you. I think I’m probably Rayna’s older daughter. She’s turned into a bratty little snooping tween, and while I’ve outgrown my bratty snooping tween phase, I still feel close to my roots.

1. Garish neon sports bra distracting, jarring against cool muted raspberry color themes of rest of studio and undulating creamy aurora print of very popular Lululemon tops everyone has.

2. Kicked neighbor’s Smart Water over in midst of desperate floor flailing during third class, bottle fell into metal wall heater, noise so loud, everyone momentarily less centered with all energy suddenly focused on hot, moist hatred for me.

3. Did not sweat enough? Not committed. Am lazy, sweatless unbending monster with chakras all askew, like in a garage sale. Garage sale chakras.

4. Fell out of Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Paschimotthanasana last class like fucking complete uncivilized idiot, like was born yesterday, like beamed down from Planet Doyyyyyy.

5. Did not sound like was having most intense, gorgeous, brain-addling orgasm during each exhale of pranayama breathing series, rather sounded like screaming goat of meme fame but 60 years down the road and after nasty bout of the flu and while standing in front of box fan.

6. Triangle pose. Literally every time attempted triangle pose. Every time even thought of triangle pose. Position of every square inch of body during triangle pose. Shameful. Brought shame to studio, family, Bikram, self.

7. Farted? But who could be sure? Really, am unsure.

8. Poked finger into mouth of neighbor during especially unruly bout of Full Locust, immediately and not discreetly broke Full Locust pose so could wipe hands off dramatically on towel like disgusted infant.

9. Allowed thoughts, eyes to wander even after being explicitly told again and again and again to NOT LET FUCKING THOUGHTS OR EYES WANDER AT ANY TIME WHATSOEVER.

10. That one time forgot to bring sandals and fresh T-shirt to put on after class and was forced to trot out of studio in ankle boots and sweatpants and peter pan collar silk top with repeating cat print, very embarrassed like tiny cartoon mouse that has just embarrassed self in cartoon.

Lauren Rodrigue lives in Brooklyn. Photo by tony george

Special report: Because of nationwide shortages, Washington hospitals are rationing, hoarding, and bartering critical nutrients premature babies and other patients need to survive. Doctors are reporting conditions normally seen only in developing countries, and there have been deaths. How could this be allowed to happen?

This is a must-read story for the weekend.

Photo: Leonardo Aguiar

Josh Eidelson was on Talk of the Nation earlier this week talking labor. If you are like me and can’t get enough of Josh Eidelson, listen or read the transcript. Good convo great convo learned some things.

Ways in which I am fastidiously frugal (father’s influence):

• 80 percent of my wardrobe comes from thrift stores, second-hand shops and sidewalk free pile foraging.

• I live in a tiny shoebox closet bedroom in a house with three other people and a single bathroom—because the rent is unbeatable, and because my housemates are sweeties.

• I haven’t bought shampoo in years—I wash my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar.

• My hairdresser is my friend who went to beauty school once. She cuts my hair in her kitchen. I lighten it with Sun-In and a hairdryer, $4.68 for a bottle that lasts months.

• I have a personal rule to pack my lunch four out of five days of the work-week, with an allotment of one restaurant-bought lunch to be used at my discretion.

• I don’t have a smart phone. My phone is of average intelligence.

• I travel much less than other people I know, partially because it seems like such a hemorrhage of money (airplane tickets, WHAT?).

• I run in the park. Can’t stomach the cost of yoga classes and gym memberships.

• I don’t buy books, I go to the library.

• I don’t eat meat. You can save SO much money this way, I can’t even believe how much fresh meat costs at the grocery store. Beans is where it’s at.

Ways in which I am exorbitantly flagrant (mother’s influence):

• The other 20 percent of my wardrobe is made up of exquisite artisan-made goods and one-of-a-kind vintage treasures, all with pricetags to match.

• My therapist doesn’t take my insurance any more so I pay his full rate out-of-pocket, because I like him too much to find a different therapist who does take my insurance.

• I buy art. I have spent hundreds of dollars, significant chunks of my budget, on special pieces that I could hear whispering my name. I took a big wad of cash I was going to spend on a tablet and bought a sculpture instead. No regrets, it’s fucking beautiful and I look at it every day and think about how much I love it.

• Expensive makeup is just better. I pay top dollar. Same for bras—I get the nice ones, the ones that cost an arm and a leg. Worth it.

• Organic groceries.

• When I do go out to eat, I go OUT. (That means I get dessert.)

Lily Hudson lives in Portland, Ore.

^{Photo by: conny lundgren}

In the essay about Fast Forward on your website, you said that the world has changed since you started working on the project in the ’80s. A lot of the things that you saw in these communities of privileged kids has now become the norm across the board. How do you reconcile something as changeable as youth culture or the economic climate with your desire to document particular phenomena?

I’m not really thinking about those things when I’m working. When I did Fast Forward, one of the things I was looking at was the homogenization of youth culture, and how kids from very different socioeconomic backgrounds were affected similarly by the same media. It was a time when MTV was blowing up and rich kids were being exposed to the materialism in gangsta rap, but there was this over-the-top materialism in the ghettos of L.A. that was also influenced by hip-hop culture. When I look at Fast Forward now, the clothes are dated, but the phenomenon is not. With the internet, cable, globalization, and international branding, it has just gotten that much stronger, that much more pervasive. I go to China, I go to Moscow, I go to Dubai, I see that those forces affect people in a lot of different parts of the world at all different ages.

And now that I have a son who’s going through the bar mitzvah phase, I can’t believe I’m living it. Yesterday he told me about an attraction they had at a party at somebody’s home where they had a fan and a box, and the kid goes in the box and the fan was blowing REAL MONEY. And the kids would catch as much as they could and take home what they caught.

Rookie has a really great interview with Lauren Greenfield, a photographer and filmmaker who made The Queen of Versailles.

Also, OMG, that box that blows money for children to grab and take home. I distinctly remember having one of those once at my middle school. We were selling boxes of candy for a school fundraiser and the kid who sold the most candy got to go into the money box. What a scam that was.

Good morning! It’s the Friday before a three-day weekend, which is exciting. Our schedule will be slightly shorter today. Let’s do some estimations.

Unfortunately, the weather will be not-so-great this weekend, which ruins some potential “being outside in the park and having a picnic” plans. But there is Arrested Development on Netflix, plenty of places to order BBQ, and time to laze around, read, and write a letter to my pen pal. I’m going to start the weekend tonight meeting up with a friend, ordering in food, and watching episodes from the newest season of Mad Men, which we have been saving. Otherwise, I’m estimating $200 for the three-day weekend.

What are your estimates?

Photo: supermac1961

Jesse David Fox is a writer, cat person, and Jew (in that order). He is an associate editor at Vulture.com and has about 495 unused business cards that say as much. This is where he plugs his twitter.

There are 17.7 million people who hold $210.5 million in unredeemed gift cards from Borders, which closed the last of their stores in 2011. A judge recently ruled that Borders owes nothing to those people, effectively making those gift cards worthless. Which reminds me of this question: Is giving someone a bad gift better than giving someone a gift card? It’s the thought that counts, right?

“If I tell you, you’re not going to believe me,” Torres said. He was crying as he told them an incredible story about being recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency to participate in a secret operation testing the security of Washington-area banks. He said he’d been assigned to rob a half-dozen banks over four days. And he told them about Theo, the man who hired him and gave all the orders—even though Torres had never met him.

Robbing banks for someone who says he’s a CIA officer.