A few reasons why The Office is so damn good:

1) Steve Carrell. As Michael, Scranton’s delightfully ignorant branch manager, Carrell is simply hilarious. His comic timng is so perfect, from his goofy laugh, to repeatedly using the passé saying “That’s what SHE said,” all too often. After accidentally outing a gay co-worker, he says in disbelief, “When I was a kid, ‘gay’ meant ‘lame.’ Now, apparently, it means a man who likes to have sex with another man.” In last night's episode, upon meeting a new employee, he remarks. "Wow! You're really exotic looking. So was your dad a G.I., or what?" His relationship with temp, Ryan, is often unwittingly homoerotic. He is the idiot you love to love.

2) Pam and Jim: The perfect example of sexual tension on television today. We all want the two of them to just finally get together, but worry that when it finally DOES happen, the show will jump the shark, much like Moonlighting or Remington Steele. (Well, maybe YOU don’t worry about that, but I do!) Handsome and sweet Jim (John Krasinski) is just the guy to rescue loyal Pam (Jenna Fischer) from her years long engagement to unappreciative fiancée Roy (David Denman). Now that Roy and Pam have split up, and Jim is finally coming back to Scranton, will their relationshio finally come to fruition? Or will Pam lose Jim to new Office interest from Stamford?

3) The writing: While this show is a knockoff of a show that previously aired on the BBC, it is just as, if not funnier, than the original. The show continues to be produced by Ricky Gervais (the writer/producer who portrayed the Michael-type character in the British version), but is written by and large by an American writing staff. What makes this show even more unique than other shows on television is that several of the writers are also characters on the show. This includes Angela Kinsey (“Angela”), Brian Baumgartner (“Kevin”), and B.J. Novak (“Ryan”) among others.

Although these are more than enough reasons in themselves to tune in to watch The Office, I’ll give you a couple more: the antagonistic relationship between Michael and Human Resources representative, Toby; the incessant ass-kissing by Dwight (Rainn Wilson) to Michael; and the repeated harassing of Dwight’s character by Jim. (Most recently, Jim admitted to sending Dwight faxes from Dwight’s future self).

In short, if you haven’t seen it, do. Seasons One and Two are both available on DVD. Once you start watching, you’ll soon find yourself in an Office marathon.

The song for today is "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger from 1983's album Midnight Madness. While the band had had some previous semi-hits ("Don't Tell Me You Love Me" and "Sing Me Away"), they really broke big with "Sister Christian" which was, I believe, the second single off that album. I fell in love with it the first time I heard it. I remember walking from a friend's house to mine one day, and I had just gotten a small "boom box" for my birthday. We were listening to the radio and that song came on. We really wanted to record it, and had a tape in the machine, so we hit record, only to later find it recorded with an uneven rythem, fading up and back as we walked. (Oh, how I love old technology). If you also love this song and it brings back specific memories for you, you should rent "Boogie Nights" to see the scene where it is used in that movie. I actually saw these guys in concert later in the 80s - Richard Marx was opening for them and they had to have a sponsor - Prell, whose giant banner hung behind them during the entire show.