TOTALLY OFF-MESSAGE FRIDAY AFTERNOON POST. Some of my old New York friends and I have gotten into a discussion about the most popular television shows of all time. I made the case for The Flintstones. Hear me out.

Fred & Crew debuted in 1960 as a prime-time sitcom -- the first prime-time cartoon in TV history. It ran for six seasons on ABC, with 166 episodes produced. Since then, it has never been off the air. Ever. In fact, Rick discovered with some quick Googling that the Bedrock gang is on television in 80 different countries in 22 languages. Every single second of every single day, somewhere in the world, The Flintstones is airing.

JUST TUCK IT AWAY. Have others pointed this out? My eagle-eyed and long-memoried pal Bill in Albany sends along this piece from the San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 2005. Headline: �Bush Scraps 9,790 Border Patrol Agents.�

It seems that one act passed by Congress in late 2004 and agreed to by the administration called for 10,000 more agents. But Bush�s budget in early 2005 funded only 210 additional agents. Just a fact worth knowing these days.

--Michael Tomasky