Steve Carell (Get Smart) returns in his Golden Globe®-winning role of “The World’s Greatest Boss,” Michael Scott, in Season Four of the hit comedy series The Office! This must-own four-disc set includes every irreverent episode from Season Four, including the five extended full TV-hour specials, plus hours of hilarious deleted scenes and bonus features! Rejoin Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) as they bring romance to the workplace, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) as he continues his quest to be Michael’s right-hand man, and newly deemed “Wunderkind” Ryan (B.J. Novak), who’s working to drag Dunder Mifflin into the digital age. Developed for American TV by Primetime Emmy® Award winner Greg Daniels (King of the Hill, The Simpsons), The Office is the intelligent and edgy Primetime Emmy® Award-winning series that critics are hailing as “the funniest show on TV” (Gavin Edwards, Rolling Stone). You’ll enjoy the inappropriate remarks, uncomfortable silences and petty behavior again and again!

Is a season of The Office with less episodes still a great season? That seems to be the debate among the Emmy-winning sitcom’s faithful audience in regard to season four, which like every program in 2007 and 2008 suffered due to the Writers Guild strike. But even a truncated season can’t dispel the fact that The Office remains one of television’s funniest and most consistently inventive programs. If a theme can be grafted upon season four, it’s Things Fall Apart: former temp Ryan (writer-producer B.J. Novak) is promoted to executive position and then squanders that power, while Dwight (series MPV Rainn Wilson) attempts to recover from his breakup with Angela (Angela Kinsey) and her apparent relationship with the hapless Andy (Ed Helms). Elsewhere, HR’s Toby (writer-director Paul Lieberstein) finally flees Dunder Mifflin for that long-threatened vacation to Costa Rica (and is replaced by Oscar nominee Amy Ryan), and Stanley (Leslie David Baker) reaches his own breaking point in “Did I Stutter?” The center of office entropy is, of course, boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who is knocked off his pedestal throughout the season; his sweetly naïve television spot is disparaged in “Local Ad,” he’s passed over for the executive outing in “Survivor Man,” and in the season’s highlights, he is forced to twice endure humiliation at the hands of his own girlfriend Jan (Melora Hardin), first in the heartbreaking “Deposition,” and then immediately after in the Emmy-nominated “Dinner Party,” which puts their disintegrating relationship in sharp focus. Even office lovebirds Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) experience some rocky moments as Jim anguishes over the right time to propose to her. But don’t let that laundry list of disasters fool you into thinking that season four is a downer; if anything, many of the episodes are among the funniest the show has produced to date. Most notable among these are the opener “Fun Run” (the Scranton team participates in Michael’s charity race for rabies prevention), “Job Fair” (Michael attempts to hawk Dunder Mifflin to high schoolers, while Jim struggles to land a client), and the aforementioned “Dinner Party” and “Goodbye, Toby.” Longtime viewers may wince at some of the broader gags in the season, like Michael and Dwight driving into the lake in “Dunder Mifflin Infinity,” but the best episodes are so strong–and Carell and his fellow players so dead-on in their performances–that it’s hard to make a case against the season for those relatively few low points. Extras in the season-four set are fewer than in previous releases, though that may have to do with the reduced number of episodes. Deleted scenes are offered for every episode, and many are real gems, most notably those in “Dinner Party” and “Goodbye Toby.” A smattering of commentaries is also included; Carell and Krasinski are noticeably absent, but Wilson, Fischer and the writing and directing staff more than make up for their absence. And the featurette “Writer’s Block,” which includes footage of the writers’ panel at an Office convention, gives an amusing alternate to the usual behind-the-scenes coverage. Michael’s complete ad for Dunder Mifflin, a battery of amusing faux PSAs for rabies, and a gag reel do much to fill out the supplemental features. –Paul Gaita

Stills from Season Four of The Office (Click for larger image)

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“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
–Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture.” Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can’t help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave–”Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”–wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have…and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
–Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture.” Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can’t help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave–”Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”–wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have…and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

Questions for Randy Pausch

We were shy about barging in on Randy Pausch’s valuable time to ask him a few questions about his expansion of his famous Last Lecture into the book by the same name, but he was gracious enough to take a moment to answer. (See Randy to the right with his kids, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe.) As anyone who has watched the lecture or read the book will understand, the really crucial question is the last one, and we weren’t surprised to learn that the “secret” to winning giant stuffed animals on the midway, like most anything else, is sheer persistence.

Amazon.com: I apologize for asking a question you must get far more often than you’d like, but how are you feeling?

Pausch: The tumors are not yet large enough to affect my health, so all the problems are related to the chemotherapy. I have neuropathy (numbness in fingers and toes), and varying degrees of GI discomfort, mild nausea, and fatigue. Occasionally I have an unusually bad reaction to a chemo infusion (last week, I spiked a 103 fever), but all of this is a small price to pay for walkin’ around.

Amazon.com: Your lecture at Carnegie Mellon has reached millions of people, but even with the short time you apparently have, you wanted to write a book. What did you want to say in a book that you weren’t able to say in the lecture?

Pausch: Well, the lecture was written quickly–in under a week. And it was time-limited. I had a great six-hour lecture I could give, but I suspect it would have been less popular at that length .

A book allows me to cover many, many more stories from my life and the attendant lessons I hope my kids can take from them. Also, much of my lecture at Carnegie Mellon focused on the professional side of my life–my students, colleagues and career. The book is a far more personal look at my childhood dreams and all the lessons I’ve learned. Putting words on paper, I’ve found, was a better way for me to share all the yearnings I have regarding my wife, children and other loved ones. I knew I couldn’t have gone into those subjects on stage without getting emotional.

Amazon.com: You talk about the importance–and the possibility!–of following your childhood dreams, and of keeping that childlike sense of wonder. But are there things you didn’t learn until you were a grownup that helped you do that?

Pausch: That’s a great question. I think the most important thing I learned as I grew older was that you can’t get anywhere without help. That means people have to want to help you, and that begs the question: What kind of person do other people seem to want to help? That strikes me as a pretty good operational answer to the existential question: “What kind of person should you try to be?”

Amazon.com: One of the things that struck me most about your talk was how many other people you talked about. You made me want to meet them and work with them–and believe me, I wouldn’t make much of a computer scientist. Do you think the people you’ve brought together will be your legacy as well?

Pausch: Like any teacher, my students are my biggest professional legacy. I’d like to think that the people I’ve crossed paths with have learned something from me, and I know I learned a great deal from them, for which I am very grateful. Certainly, I’ve dedicated a lot of my teaching to helping young folks realize how they need to be able to work with other people–especially other people who are very different from themselves.

Amazon.com: And last, the most important question: What’s the secret for knocking down those milk bottles on the midway?

Pausch: Two-part answer:
1) long arms
2) discretionary income / persistence

Actually, I was never good at the milk bottles. I’m more of a ring toss and softball-in-milk-can guy, myself. More seriously, though, most people try these games once, don’t win immediately, and then give up. I’ve won *lots* of midway stuffed animals, but I don’t ever recall winning one on the very first try. Nor did I expect to. That’s why I think midway games are a great metaphor for life.

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In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity — principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

Anyone who thinks the audiocassette adaptation of Stephen Covey’s bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is a shortcut to reading the book has another thing coming. As a preview, the cassette is worth every one of its 90 minutes; as a substitute for the original, it will only leave you wishing for the rest. There’s a reason 7 Habits has sold more than 5 million copies and been translated into 32 languages. Serious work has obviously gone into it, and serious change can likely come out of it–but only with constant discipline and steadfast commitment. As the densely packed tape makes immediately clear, this is no quick fix for what’s ailing us in our personal and professional lives.

The tape opens to the silky-smooth, overtrained voice of the female narrator, who’s responsible for tying together audio clips from actual Covey seminars. Leaving aside the occasional attempts at promoting Covey and his institute, her script does a first-rate job of making sense of Covey’s own intense, analogy-rich style of explaining his habits. There’s nothing simple about his approach to becoming an effective person. The first three habits alone–which have to do with personal responsibility, leadership, and self-management–could take years to master. Yet the last four are unattainable, the narrator insists, if you can’t acquire the personal security–the “inner core,” says Covey–that presumably comes from a mastery of the foundation.

Throughout our lessons, Covey’s presence is both learned and thoroughly appealing. He drops references to the likes of Socrates, T.S. Eliot, and Robert Frost with the aplomb of an English professor. And his knack for mixing everyday stories with abstract concepts manages to clarify difficult issues while respecting our intelligence. You could argue that the cassette is nothing more than a clever marketing tool for selling another few million copies of the book. But, even at that, it’s worth the investment in time and concentration: in the end, we’re moved to learn more about integrating all seven habits in our struggle to become better and, yes, more effective people. (Running time: 1.5 hours, one cassette) –Ann Senechal

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Chris Daughtry starts his first post-American Idol disc with a song whose title reviewers coast to coast will be grateful for: “It’s Not Over.” What an understatement. For the Idol-watching rock fan’s money, nobody–not even Southern-fried heartthrob Bo Bice in season four–stormed the stage with more raw talent. That it translates so well to a solo disc (Daughtry was recorded with studio musicians; future discs will include a Daughtry-assembled band) proves all he needed was a little prodding, the kind the tube has gotten so good at. Here are a dozen songs that’ll flick your rock & roll switch, whether you’re a Creed fan, a club kid, or a mambo king: “Used To” and “Over You,” a couple of early tracks, ought to arrive bundled with a road map they’re so highway sing-along-ready, and “Feels Like Tonight” screws the lid on the premise that Daughtry can deliver a punchy pop-rock song without flinching. Elsewhere, the North Carolina family man lets his inner (and outer, actually) goatee- and eyeliner-type guy rip: his built-for-the-hard-stuff voice bites down appealingly on “Breakdown,” a dark serenade to mental health, and also on “What I Want,” an ’80s-style fist-pumper featuring Slash. The loud mad dash of those songs leads to a midtempo wind-down (“All These Lives,” “What About Now”), but as a mix, it works. Daughtry is a man of many moods–contemplative, explosive, insistent, humble. No matter which pokes through on a given song, he steadies it to a place as honest as it is accessible. Rare is the rocker who lays out so broad an on-ramp. –Tammy La Gorce

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E3 Spark Plugs E3.62 Automotive, Truck, Van and SUV OEM replacement Spark Plug is available at Amazon for $5.95. To Order click here
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We are living in the most reckless financial environment in recent history. Arcane credit derivative bets are now well into the tens of trillions.

According to Charles R. Morris, the astronomical leverage at investment banks and their hedge fund and private equity clients virtually guarantees massive disruption in global markets. The crash, when it comes, will have no firebreaks. A quarter century of free-market zealotry that extolled asset stripping, abusive lending, and hedge fund secrecy will come crashing down with it.

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown explains how we got here, and what is about to happen. After the crash our priorities will be quite different. But things are likely to get worse before they better. Whether you are an active investor, a homeowner, or a contributor to your 401(k) plan, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown will be indispensable to understanding the gross excess that has put the world economy on the brink–and what the new landscape will look like.

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Here comes the next hilarious season of marital bliss and fantasies of the perfect mate! Whether it’s Jeff’s (Patrick Warburton) snoring that pushes him into the guest bedroom, the “unsexy” sex tape that Adam (Oliver Hudson) and Jennifer (Bianca Kajlich) try to record, Audrey (Megyn Price) protecting her sister from “the perv” Russell (David Spade), or the time-share vacation they all take together, the second season of Rules of Engagement looks at love from all sides of the bed with humor and honesty that’ll keep you laughing no matter what shape you or your relationship is in!

The misadventures of two couples and one destined-to-be-single loser in the sitcom Rules of Engagement carry into a second season featuring hit-and-miss urbane comedy. Patrick Warburton and Megyn Price remain the best thing about this show, playing the long-married Jeff and Audrey, an exemplary Mars & Venus pair who clearly love and care for one another beneath radically different perceptions of marital obligation and gender politics. Warburton, in a more refined version of his role as Elaine’s obtuse boyfriend on Seinfeld, is very good as a character whose first impulse is to take the easy way out on every complex relationship issue, but usually comes around out of respect and love for his wife. Slightly less interesting are Adam (Oliver Hudson) and Jennifer (Bianca Kajlich), a younger couple navigating tricky waters of transition from the single life to wedded bliss. Meanwhile, Russell (David Spade) rounds things out as a would-be serial lover who rarely gets even mercy attention from the opposite sex. The notion that these five people form a tight social network doesn’t quite work (neither does the more fundamental relationship between the guys), but the show moves along so fast such details hardly matter. The balance between the characters, each of whom is at a unique stage of relationship evolution, is more compelling, though played entirely for laughs.

Highlights on Rules of Engagement: The Complete Second Season include “Flirting With Disaster,” featuring parallel storylines about the impact of Jeff’s snoring on Audrey’s nighttime rest (the two sleep separately for a while, which brings out the frat boy in Jeff) while Adam copes with the temptations offered by a flirtatious waitress. The funny “Audrey’s Sister” stars Heather Locklear as the titular sibling, whose relationship troubles encourage a desperate Russell to try get her in bed. “Guy Code” is an especially good show, in which Jeff feels honor-bound not to reveal the dark secrets he learns about an acquaintance whom Audrey assumes is a real gentleman. “Mr. Fix-It” is a novel storyline in which Adam and Jennifer decide to record themselves having sex, only to find it isn’t as exciting in practice as in theory. “Optimal Male” concerns Jeff’s obsession to lose a few pounds so he can qualify for cheaper life insurance, and the season-ending “Pimp My Bride” juggles stories about Adam and Jennifer’s wedding date and Russell’s decision to use his surprisingly sophisticated apartment as a love nest. –Tom Keogh

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Set includes: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, and The Tale of the Body Thief.

For the first time you can find all your favorite night-stalking, blood-guzzling undead–Lestat, Claudia, Louis, Akasha, Armand, and Memnoch–all in the same place at the same time. Here, collected in one box-set, are the four bestselling, original titles of Anne Rice’s sprawling vampire series.

Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the body Thief) is available at Amazon for $21.09. To Order click here
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