I'd love to claim some ennobling reason for staying up until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. most nights over the past few weeks. Like I've been mastering a Rachmaninoff concerto. Or doing endless stomach crunches to build those washboard abs. But no. I've been staring at bigbrother2000.com on my computer screen, watching the webcast of CBS's reality show Big Brother. The TV show ("10 strangers, three months, no privacy") is hit or miss. But the website is totally addictive.
Here's the difference. The TV episodes boil 24 hours of bickering housemates into 22 minutes (longer on Wednesday and...