workFRIENDLY Instead of Really Working

Television Without Pity* recaps a lot of shows I watch. I sometimes kill time at work by reading the coverage of shows I already saw, just to laugh at the smart remarks made by the recappers or see if anybody in the forums made some interesting comments. I haven't done that too much lately, though. It's kind of hard sometimes, because the site looks like this:

and all the bright colors and ads/photos make it rather clear to anyone passing by (or rummaging in the somewhat communal bookshelf or file cabinet behind my chair) that I am not cleaning up the word-processed files for a new manuscript or typing up my proofing notes or doing anything else that could remotely be construed as official work.

However, I discovered in November that I can use workFRIENDLY - Surf safely from work to reformat the page to look like a bland Microsoft Word document:

If that still looks suspicious, there's a helpful Boss Key . . .




. . . that switches the text to an innocuous-looking article on time management:

Once American Idol starts next week, I'm probably going to be using this a lot.

*I had a Barnes & Noble gift card burning a hole in my pocket last week, plus they were running a Buy-2-DVDs-Get-1-Free sale, plus I get a 10 percent discount, so I splurged on all three seasons of Arrested Development. I watched most of season 1 over the weekend, and was reminded of something I had read about ages ago in a 2005 Television Without Pity interview with Will Arnett and then forgotten about until I heard Jason Bateman mention "T-W-o-P" in an episode commentary. Personally, I say it "tee-wop," but apparently that's not right either, as this excerpt makes clear:

[Wing Chun]: I look forward to going again [to the ASSSCAT show]. I know we're going to be back in New York [this summer] for sure, so we're going to try to go then. Actually, the TWoP recappers' summit is going to be in New York [this year], so maybe we'll all try to go together.

[Will Arnett]: Reeeeeally! Wait, so you guys call it "TWoP" [rhymes with "swap"]?

WC: Yeah.

WA: Awesome.

WC: Why, what do you call it at that end?

WA: T-W-o-P.

WC: That's so many syllables.

WA: First of all, Bateman came up with that.

WC: Oh, okay.

WA: He's not so bright.

WC: By the way, I've been asked to ask: when they had the chart with "Time Without Parents," abbreviated to "TWP," was that a shout-out?

WA: Oh yeah, for sure. Are you kidding? Do you know how many times — God, I shouldn't say this, but we'll be doing a scene, and we'll be going over a joke and it'll be me and Jason and Mitch [Hurwitz] and Chuck Martin, who's an integral part of our show that not a lot of people really know about, 'cause Chuck really runs the show from the floor, and he's such an important, sort of unheralded piece to the puzzle. He actually directed what may be the last episode ever.

WC: Oh, no, don't say that.

WA: I know. But we'll be pitching a new joke or pitching doing the scene differently, and be like, "Oh, God, you know T-W-o-P would love it if we did this."

WC: Aw! That's so nice.

WA: You guys, and the fans on the site, and the people who write in, and the people who really care and pay attention to the show, you know — Obviously, we sell the show like, "Anybody can relate to it and it's great to drop in."

WC: Which is true.

WA: Which is true, but we do also really appreciate the people who watch and look for all the jokes and just appreciate all the attention to detail. I mean, Mitch Hurwitz is an incredibly detail-oriented tinkerer, you know, and he — you know, the writers read T-W-o-P!

WC: Really?

WA: Oh, yeah! Your site is so good.

WC: Aw, you don't have to say that.

WA: No, it really is!

WC: Well, thank you.

WA: It's on my Bookmarks bar.