Tv Talk Machine

After weeks and weeks of no TVTM to bore you with, we're back! And rustier than ever! The unprecedented work stoppage was littered with catastrophic failure at every turn -- vacations, actual work, other vacations, holidays, the lack of adequate or available fill-ins, Question Boy (media writer and political reporter Joe Garofoli) doing his other job, laziness -- you name it. Well, let me tell you, we narrowly averted yet another week without pointless rambling when, 41 minutes before Go Time, Manny (aka Benny Evangelista), sent an e-mail saying he was coming down with "a cough" and wouldn't be available today. Fearing rampaging crowds on an international scale, we rushed up to the third floor (where the power people are) and asked Super Sub producer Justin Beck whether he could fill in as producer. "Sure," he said. It was the one word he wished he hadn't said in the last 26 days. Once trapped in the Pod Cave, enduring a call-less TVTM (Justin was too lazy to pull them off the phone system), Question Boy and