My earlier disparaging comments about “Big Brother” notwithstanding, I admit that I love “Survivor.” Now that a few weeks have gone by, we talk about the cast members like we do characters in a soap opera – a soap opera where they eat rats and race each other on obstacle courses. Will Richard’s alliance with Susan and Kelly continue? Will Gervase ever catch any fish?

The show is everything I hate about popular culture in the year 2000, and yet I can’t look away.