TV Guide™ Roundup

Finally another special Collector's Edition, the first in almost six weeks. This time it's Star Trek, as the folks at Our Favorite Checkout Line Publication belatedly acknowledge the popularity of science fiction. But, please, can't we come up with a special four-slot rack so I don't have to hunt through every copy to make sure I've got them all? The bag boy got testy when I didn't tell him I wanted paper promptly enough.

And inside it's more thrills and surprises! You can pick up TV Guide's™ memorial tribute to the recently deceased Pope John Paul II, on newsstands now. And even though I'm not sure about that "Champion of Faith" tag--I thought the replays showed His Holiness had one Shoe of the Fisherman on the line when he canned that jumper--let's put aside our differences and echo the editors: He will be missed.

Plus we get articles on Lost, Survivor: Palau, American Idol, The Amazing Race, and The O.C. And I've just created a macro.

Letters: Newark, Delaware's Larisa Parker-Watt is unhappy that Simon Cowell said Paula Abdul "wanted" him. She can get that sort of thing at the cafeteria of her local middle school. Don Stern, from rainy Seattle way, is gratified by 24's Edgar Stiles, the short, dumpy, balding hero for the rest of us. The new Battlestar Gallactica doesn't measure up to the old one, opines Joseph P. Pintar, while Norm Washecka loves Rob and Amber on The Amazing Race. Norm hails from Fort Collins, CO; I have a friend who lives there, and he name-checks Rupert from Survivor, who's from Indianapolis. Coincidence?

This week's highlighted letter features another fellow Hoosier, St. John's Jayne Kranc. In fact, there are two St. John, Indianas, one near the Region and the other down by Evansville, and I've never been to either one. Jayne thinks James Marsters, Spike of the Buffyverse (really, that's what she called it) should have his own movie, and both she and her daughters agree he looks great for a man of 42. The weird thing here is that when I first caught his pic in the lower left hand corner I thought somebody had written in about 70s pop never-was Jobriath. And I always thought he should have had his own movie.

Don't read the rest of it. Believe me.

Crossword Spoiler, and I'm gonna have to learn the code for those little boxes that hide this sort of thing until you highlight it:

1 Across ___ Dawn Chong

ANS: RAE (it's spelled funny).