Spring begins tonight at about 8:00 Eastern Standard Time. I don’t know about you, but to me, nothing says “vernal equinox” quite like going to war!

That and the smell of freshly-cut grass.

I know there’s a war on, but I’m annoyed at New York’s Channel 11, our local affiliate of the Frog Network. They cut in with war coverage at around 9:55 last night. “Angel” had a minute or two left, at most. They couldn’t wait one or two more minutes? Did they think they were missing out on an exclusive? The WB doesn’t even have its own news team. They had to carry the CNN feed. I could have done that by switching channels.

I guess it makes sense, though, as CNN is owned by AOL Time Warner, and that’s AOL Time Warner, as in “Warner Brothers,” as in the WB. (AOL Time Warner also owns DC Comics, which owns the rights to Superman, which I guess is why “Smallville” runs on the WB.)

UPN, meanwhile, would seem to be owned by Fox, because UPN was carrying the Fox News Channel last night. But no, it’s owned by Viacom, just like CBS, so I don’t know why it wasn’t broadcasting CBS. Not that I would have understood that either. While I can sort of understand the WB broadcasting CNN, as non-cable viewers don’t have CNN, both Fox and UPN were broadcasting the Fox News Channel last night, and they’re both over-the-air networks. A tad redundant, no?

By the way, Fox is owned by News Corporation, a.k.a. Rupert Murdoch.

We’re living in a media conglomerocracy.

So last night, in a media craze, I basically found myself switching among General Electric, Viacom, AOL Time Warner, News Corporation, and Disney.

It’s a frickin’ miracle Willow was able to show up on “Angel” last night.

But I guess witches who speak bad Latin can pretty much do anything they want.